the runners

“why do you do it?” they asked, “how do you do it?”

they never answered with words. they couldn’t answer with words; they could only answer with the action of “it” that no one understood and everyone questioned. they answered with the thousands of miles they have endured for the last six to ten years. they answered on the days the sun scorched its highest temperature and the skies released its fiercest winds. they could never give an answer to one who has not done it – the only way you understood is if you were crazy enough to do it.

and they are indeed the crazy ones.
they are the runners.

and once you’re in…
there is no way out.
fear them – because they have an endurance you have never experienced and a pain tolerance that you have not reached. they are in forests and cities and rain and ice and heat and wind and they do not stop.

and they cannot tell you why. they cannot tell each other, but they do not have to. for there is something unknown that connects the minds of those who run for miles at a time – there is an unexplainable understanding they share that is understood so deeply and that is etched into their bones within each step that it becomes an understanding that has never been spoken.

and they are the runners. they have mastered the trick that is played on the mind when you’re in it – a spell that can easily be reversed when the body overcomes the mind and the pain sets in and there is no turning point and there is no stopping because you cannot stop until you have crossed the finish. and they do not stop, they never stop. it is a game so easily lost when the mind shuts down – but that is the key; that is why no matter the pain they never lose the race. the mind must never shut down, for anything is possible if it is believed enough.
and that is why.